Some photos from France

A cave in Minerve

I love French pastries

The Pompidou center fountains were turned off for the winter

England

Well, we have been having a lovely break relaxing with our family in England. I am finished my Christmas shopping and cannot wait until the big day. My sister went to a physio appointment the other day, she is allowed to take off the brace, move it around, and do a bit of walking with crutches. Generally good news. Today I went sledding with my cousin Adam, or "sledging" as it is called here. We went to two hills, the first was less crowded, but the second was twice as big and very steep and icy. At the the top of the second hill there was a garbage bin full of broken sleds, very eery. It reminded me of scenes in Indiana Jones movies where he steps into a cave or something and looks down and sees a skeleton. We have been getting a lot of snow here (a lot of snow for England anyways) and having a good time.

Paris and back to England

Well if you have read my parents' blog you will know that we had a hard time getting into Paris. I'm not going to talk too much about it, but basically there was a big snow storm and we were stuck in the worst traffic jam in the history of Greater Paris. Read my parents blog for details. Other than that our time in Paris was good. Some of the highlights were, visiting the Louvre, the Museum of Modern Art and the Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. With a few days to spare before our ferry to England we headed to Arras. If you have been following the blog you will know that the last time we were in Arras we did not have the best time. It was no different this time. We tried to find a computer to use but were told we had to come back with our Mastercard in 2 hours. So we went to the Christmas market and decided to go skating on the rink that they had set up. The skating was fun but when we were done and undoing our skates, Mhari forgot that her skates were undone, stood up and hurt her knee. At first it hurt a lot and then it slowly got a bit better she could put a bit of weight on it during the walk to the car but then it just slowly got worse. That night it was so bad that we took her to the hospital. The doctor said that she thought it was a fracture but she had to come back tomorrow to visit the specialist. He said that it was not a fracture but that she had popped her knee out instead and should imobolize it for three weeks. Then he looked at it further and said that in three weeks time she should get an MRI because of possible ligament damage. Luckily, we are in England now, safe and sound with our family.

Brive

Last night we stayed in a hostel in Brive. Today we were driving out of Brive, when I opened the Lonely Planet and read that Brive had a big market today. When we turned our heads we could see the market just over the river so we decided to go. We didn t buy much, just some pears, some apples and two pain aux raisins. Then we went to the center of town and my dad and I walked around a bit while my mom and sister bought slippers.

Toulouse

Before we left Carcassonne, we went to the skating rink downtown for an hour of skating. Despite being Canadians we were not the best skaters there. That afternoon, we drove to Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France. We went to the huge Christmas market that was full of people and had lots of tasty treats. I got a hot chocolate that was super thick, and a hot sandwhich with lots of onions. Later we went to the Capitole which had tons of paintings on the ceiling and lots of paintings by Henri Martin which were good too. There was a huge romanesque basilica that I wanted to see but it was getting late so we went back to the hotel. Today we drove through the Dordogne and stopped at a town called Rocamadour that is built into the side of a cliff. My parents said that when they went before I was born and there were tourists everywhere and you could barely move. We had the place to ourselves.(By the way, I have put a new recipe on the recipes page)

Barcelona to Carcassonne

Last day in Barcelona
Today we went to the science museum. They had all sorts of cool stuff and I am not even going to try to explain how they worked. The section on illusions was good and the section about Issaac Newtons laws was nice because I understood how it worked.

Goodbye Barcelona
On our way back up through France we were passing through Languedoc anyways so we figured we might as well stop and get back some of our photos (they are on the computer). We stopped at Queribus and Peyrepertuse and had a quick visit (read about Queribus and Peyrepertuse on my parents or my sisters blog. I had a blog about them all typed out but it is on the computer that the baddies got).

We stayed the night in Carcassonne and found out that they were having a big festival this weekend so we booked an extra two nights. Last night there was a big torch walk. We and about 1000 other people held big torches and walked through the city. Lots of people were dressed in Medival costumes and we got the best spot, right behind the percussion band playing samba music. It was tons of fun. Today we will see if we can go skating on the rink they have in the center of town. Of all the things I thought I might do in southern France, skating was not one of them. There was also a fire show last night. There was one guy who just walked around with a flaming torch and every once in a while he would fill his mouth with gas and spray it on the flame creating a big fire ball. I couldn t believe he was doing this, especially at 1.50€ a litre.

Gaudi and Picasso

Monday

Today we started the day off with a visit to the Canadian Consulate where we met more people who had been robbed. On our way to the metro stop we saw Casa Batllo, a famous building designed by Gaudi, a world famous architect and Barcelonian superstar.(click on the word "Gaudi" or the word "Casa Batllo" for more info). We took the metro to Gaudi most famous work, "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is so advanced and so detailed that it has been under construction since 1882 and is only between half and three quarters of the way done. Every inch of the outside is covered in statues; from a distance it looks as if it is melting. The inside is not as detailed but it is vast and innovative in design. Fully worth the small fortune it cost to get in. In continuing with our Gaudi theme we went to Parc Guell. Designed to be a suburb community for the wealthy, the project was scrapped and turned into a public park. Very impressive and a nice place for a stroll.

Tuesday

We woke up to pouring rain and decided to stay indoors and visit some museums. We spent about 30 minutes looking for the Picasso Museum, so much for our staying indoors plan. They had hid it in a small alley. Despite all that it was only 9 euros for the entire family and well worth the money. When you think Picasso you think cubism, it turns out that he was much more than that and Cubism was only one of his phases. One of my favourite parts was a room full of variations of a single painting. For the rest of the day we wandered around, went to two different markets, ate Tapas for lunch and, following their 5-0 win against real Madrid, I bought an FC Barcelona cap.

Barcelona day 2

After that bad start to Barcelona and a bad nights sleep (the rooms were boiling hot), we were not very inclined to wake. But we had to eat and be out of the rooms by 10 am. We took the suburban train to Plaça de Catalunya. We found the Canadian consulate but it was Sunday and therefore closed. We headed to La Rambla, a world famous boulevard. It was crowded and we had heard that there were lots of pickpockets. Despite this it still retained a fun atmosphere. There were human statues all over the place and souvenir shops full of keychains, postcards and various FC Barcelona products. When the street ended at the port we took a little break, watched a boat try to park and soaked in the atmosphere a bit. We walked back up through Barri Gotic (the old quarter) and went back to the hostel to relax.

Barcelona

We left Languedoc yesterday and are in Barcelona. We had been warned about pickpockets and scammers before so we were ready to watch out once we got there. What we did not expect was to be robbed on the motorway in broad daylight. We were about 15 minutes away from Barcelona and nearing our junction when the car beside us started waving at us, pointing at our tire and telling us to pull over. My dad had been noticing a bit of wheel wobble earlier and was therefore not surprised. We pulled over and the man came over to us while his wife stayed in the car. He was panicked and pointing at the tire and talking frantically in Spanish. Then another man jumped out from the car (he had been hiding) and grabbed our computer and my mom s daysack. I was the only one to see this as Dad was out looking at the tire and Mom was looking back. I jumped up and screamed: they re taking the computer.
I then learnt that in situations like this, I do not stay calm and collected, but instead Adrenalin takes hold. Not thinking, I started running after the guy. He jumped in his car and they sped away with his door still open. I ran after the car swearing at the man as loud as I could. Unfortunately, I only later realised that all my efforts were lost as we are in Spain now and he probably did not understand English. When we got to our hostel we got directions to the police office and spent some time seeing the city while we looked for the station. 2 hours of time, to be precise. The streets are a maze and seem to all be one way. I had a nice blog written and ready to post about our last week in Azille unfortunately you will have to be stuck reading this one instead. By the way, does everyone like the youtube video?

Youtube

I figured out the Youtube thing now.
I have my first video on. It is of the Pompidou center fountains.
Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAuvlGs_HqE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Languedoc

On Saturday we left the cold and rain in Auvergne in search of warmer weather in Languedoc. The Motorway was amazing. It hugged cliff sides as it climbed up gorges, and then crested hills with views over the plains for hundreds of miles. On our way south we got to cross the Millau Viaduct: one of the tallest bridges in the world, and certainly the tallest in France (although it was designed by an Englishman). Our gite here is great. It is really big, in a nice town and only a short walk from the bakery. Since the owners are British, we get British T.V.   As I write I am watching the England vs France football (soccer) match on i.t.v. So far it’s not looking good for England.

Sunday was the town’s “Vide grenier” kind of like a big town garage sale. People had set up shop right outside our window, and since the main floor is at ground level, with no front yard and the house has a big “For Sale” sign on it, there were people looking in our window all day long. It was very weird.

Later that day my dad and I went for a bike ride with the bikes that came with the gite.

Well, our attempt to find better weather seems to have been futile as today (Monday), was wet, windy and cold. Luckily our destination today was nice even with the rain. We went to the medieval city of Carcassonne. The city is on top of a hill and it is surrounded by not one, but two rings of ramparts with a combined 52 towers. It was so well built that no one dared to attack it. What a shame seeing as they built the second ring of ramparts and thickened the walls to defend from the Spanish who never came. With the weather as such we had the place to ourselves, (not even the shop owners to keep us company). The French store hours are very hard to understand).

Where we are staying there are vineyards everywhere and olive and almond trees growing on the side of the road. It is very strange.  Although I do not recommend eating raw olives off the tree because they taste so bitter I thought they might be poisonous. They are much better after soaking in whatever they soak them in. They’re also good on bread, and in pizza (mmmmm…)

On Wednesday we went to a pretty town called Minerve. They had a big gorge and in the side of the rock was a giant entrance to a cave that passed under the cliff to the other side of gorge (The gorge does a U-turn).

Auvergne

Sunday 7th of November 2010

We’ve left Paris and are now staying in the Auvergne, a hilly, sometimes mountainous, region in the middle of France. It is a traditional area famed for its cheese and sausages.  We have a nice gîte in a small village near St-Nectaire.  Today, we explored the town of St-Nectaire itself. The town is a popular tourist destination in summer but it seems that everyone has gone on vacation for this week; we figure they have all gone to Corsica, as it is the only place in France where it’s not raining. The bakery is closed half the week and most of the sites and attractions are closed also.  Luckily, they had a nice Romanesque church for us to see.  It had very ornate, colourful pillars.

Monday the 8th of 2010

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

We wanted to go to Mont Dore today, to do some hiking. Somewhere along the 1400+ meter mountain pass, it started to snow. By the time we got to the top, it was so snowy and windy that we could barely see where we were going, luckily, we could see enough that we knew we were at the edge of a big downhill. We pulled over to the side of the road and got out to look around. The wind was blowing so hard that as soon as I stepped outside my jeans were frosted with the cold, blowing snow. When my sister tried to get back inside during a particularly strong gust, her door would not open. We decided not to continue and instead we went back to the gîte and sat around in front of the fire and read all afternoon.

Tuesday the 9th of November

After our failure to hike yesterday, we decided not to give up and to try again. Unfortunately it was still slushy. We went for a 3 km hike around a lake then decided our feet were too wet and we returned home.

Wednesday the 10th of November

After two failed attempts to hike and knowing it was going to rain we gave up on that and went to Clermont Ferrand, local metropolis and home of the Michelin tire empire. When we finally parked our car, we walked through the old town up to the “Lord of the Rings-esque” black volcanic rock cathedral. Since it, along with everything else was closed till 2 pm, we went to the tourist information office and watched a movie about Romanesque architecture, very interesting and educational too.  When 2 O’clock came we went to the Michelin Boutique in the main square. They had all sorts of interesting memorabilia, including Michelin Man keychains (known in France as “Bibendum”), Michelin Bags, Michelin t-shirts, Michelin postcards and a little Citroën C3 with the Michelin Logo and pictures of Bibendum all over it. Since the C3 was less than two Euros, I decided to ignore any discouraging comments made on my blog, (Janet!) and add it to my collection of little Citroëns.  Then we visited the cathedral and another small church too. On our way out, we drove past the city’s huge Rugby stadium “Stade Marcel Michelin” (Clermont Ferrand are reigning French champions), The Michelin Adventure museum, and many Michelin warehouses and factories.

Thursday the 11th of November

Happy Birthday to Mady and Christy, our cats! They are 5 today.

Well, our first sunny day yet. We took advantage of it and headed out on a sixteen km hike. Three hours, tons of amazing views, a few big hills, one muddy road and one cow with giant ears. A hike worth waiting for.

Friday the 12th of November

It turns that the nice weather was too good to last. Another rainy day. Despite the rain we had a good day. The snow had melted on the road and we made it to Mont Dore. Although the snow was gone it was still gusting with wind and pelting with rain. The highlight of the drive was when we saw someone in the distance whom we thought was on a motorbike. When we got closer we realised it was a scooter. At this point we were blown away by the fact that it had not been blown sideways on the road up. When we passed it, we looked and saw that it was an elderly women bringing her groceries home. We still do not know how she managed to do it.

The town of Mont Dore was not that great as everybody was away and most of the stores were closed. Besides we could only see a couple hundred metres in front of us. We went for a three km hike between three waterfalls it was all very nice, but wet. On our way back to our gite, we stopped at some caves that used to be Roman baths and are now a major tourist attraction. We had to wait for 45 minutes and pay a bit but it was all… not worth it. A couple of years ago I went to two amazing caves in South Dakota. They had all sorts of Amazing stalactites, and the walls seemed to be covered in snowflakes and diamonds. These caves had some cool limestone stalactites but nothing that amazing, there were only a few “rooms” you could go into and the Romans seemed to have left without a trace. They just used the pools as they were, No columns or statues like in Bath.

I rate it a 1 out of 4 fountains in our new rating scheme.

Paris, days 2,3,4,5

Monday 1st November 2010

Today we woke up early and went to get our Indian visas.   When we got there, we asked the guy at the desk for papers to fill out.  He told us there were a few copies at the back but we had to photocopy them ourselves at the 20 centimes a page photocopier.  12 sheets later (3 pages each) we filled them out and managed to hand them in.  We were told it would take two to three weeks for them to process the applications.  After that we went to Père Lachaise cemetery and saw famous dead people such as Chopin, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein and Molière.  The cemetery was beautiful with graves inches apart all over the place.   Jim Morrison’s grave was the first I’ve ever seen with three security guards and a barrier in front of the grave. 

We also went to see the Louvre courtyard and its pyramid.  It was beautiful in the afternoon light and our pictures don’t do it justice.  Although we decided that we would rather forego the hour and half long line up to enter the museum.  On our way back to the hostel we stopped at Centre Pompidou, a building with all the pipes and vents on the outside rather than in the walls.  The building was cool but the fountains were better. 

Pere Lachaise 

Grafitti near Jim Morrison's grave

Pompidou Center

Tuesday 2nd November 2010

Today was day three in Paris; first we climbed the staircase up the Eifel tower.  The views were amazing and we could make out all the Parisian landmarks.  My favourite view was that of Sacré-Coeur on top on Montmartre.  When we got back down I bought some key chains from one of the many street vendors.  We then took the bus 69 to Ile de la Cité.  We had lunch beside Notre Dame then joined the crowds inside the Cathedral.  The inside was nice but not that amazing because for one, it was full of tourists like us, and also I have seen more Cathedrals in the past two months than I have in my entire life.  The outside was amazing though.  Especially, the judgement day Portal, the carvings of the devil torturing the newest editions to Hell were interesting, but very gruesome (boiled alive, starved, fed to the alligators).  We then went to Ile St-Louis and bought some world famous Berthillon ice cream; it was delicious.  On our way to the Latin Quarter we walked over a metal bridge with padlocks all over it.  When couples start dating they put a lock on the bridge.  If they break up, one of them goes and takes the lock off the bridge. 

In the Latin Quarter we got some frites for a snack and my Dad bought some new hiking shoes, which he is very proud of.  Then we walked up to the Pantheon and sat on the curb in front for 15 minutes doing nothing but watching students from the University of Paris faculty of Law and take pictures of Dad’s new shoes. 

Sacré-Coeur

Notre Dame judgement day portal

Lovers' Locks

Students outside the Pantheon

Wednesday 3rd of November 2010.

Today I was very reluctant to get out of bed, luckily I was hungry enough to make myself get up so I could have breakfast. The breakfast at the hostel was great, they have a granola cereal with coconuts and raisins.  When we had fuelled we went to Montmartre a famous artist neighbourhood.  We saw Sacré-Coeur, a marble Basilica, with views over the city.  There was a mime there but he was not very good.  In the streets it was very touristy and there were artists everywhere asking to sketch you.  After a while it got annoying so I was tempted to start asking if they wanted me to sketch them.  There was also a guy who grabbed my finger and started weaving a bracelet onto it with the intention of making me buy it when he was finished.  We decided that we wanted more good views so we went to the Tour Montparnasse the tallest building in Paris proper.  It was so unpopular that just after they built it, the city made a law restricting building heights within the city.  It has the fastest elevator in Europe, 56 floors in 38 seconds.  The views from the rooftop were amazing.  When we got hungry we went to the market and bought a French specialty – Falafel!  Next stop was the catacombs.  Deep underground tunnels with walls made form the bones of millions of dead Parisians.  They were built because cemeteries were poisoning the water so the city told the Priests to move the bones underneath the sewers into abandoned mines.  The bones were neatly stacked and they had even made hearts and crosses out of skulls, creepy, but cool.  The tunnel went on for two kilometres and that is only the tiny section that they have open to the public.  It is impossible to describe how many bones there were.  You were allowed to touch the bones if you liked.  A fun game to play is to guess the name of the person you are looking at and his or her life story.   With time to waste, we relaxed at the Jardins de Luxembourg.   Then my Dad and I went to La Defense, a modern skyscraper district.  The main attraction there was gargantuan arch(basically a big hollow cube).  I felt completely dwarfed.  It is probably taller than the Richardson building for all you Winnipeg folk.  If you ever go to Paris avoid riding the RER.  It is like going to a rock concert in a labyrinth full of people and impossible to navigate.  The metro is fine though. 

View of the Gare from the Montparnasse Tower

View of the Luxemburg Gardens from the tower

Thats Jim, he was a plumber

More bones

Grand Arch de la Defense

Notice the guy on the steps.

Thursday 4th of November

Our last day in Paris...  We had two more things we wanted to see today, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Musee Rodin.  The Musée d’Orsay is the national museum for impressionist and post impressionist art.  The museum is housed in an old train station but it looks more like a palace.  There are carvings on the wall and an ornate gilded clock in the main hall.  The best parts of the museum were the Van Gogh section and a special exhibit on an artist named Gerome who painted historical paintings.  He had one painting that was set in the coliseum that showed the Christian prisoners in the middle and the lions and tigers coming out from underneath the ground.  In the next painting, the guards were bringing the cats in and slaves cleaning up the mess.  Very Gruesome. Later, while we were waiting at the bus stop to catch a bus to the Musée Rodin, a parade of soldiers in their ceremonial outfits came by on horseback.  They were a brass band as well and they played us a tune while trotting along. While they past us one of the horses stepped out of the line and stopped to have a pee, the soldier’s face turned bright red, it was hilarious. A street cleaning crew followed the horses, they managed to clean up the street quite effectively.  Later we found out that the parade was to welcome the Chinese president.  We got our bus across town and stopped for lunch in a small park, where a homeless person was ripping branches off trees.  A woman notified the park officials and 10 minutes later security had arrived and threw him out of the park.  Paris is never boring.  Anyway, when we finally got to the museum after those couple of delays we found out it was well worth the wait. It was dedicated to Auguste Rodin, a famous sculptor.  We saw lots of well-known works including the Thinker and the Burghers of Calais (City Official). 

Later that night, while my Dad and sister stayed home, my Mum and I went back out to the Latin Quarter for supper. We found a Greek place and we each got gyros with frites for four and a half Euros a piece. They were delicious and, by the end, we were stuffed. Then we went to the Champs Élysées. While we were walking by we saw a Mc Café, yes a café run by McDonalds. We went in, but just to look and sneak a photo.  We were too stuffed to buy anything.

The Thinker

Statue of Victor Hugo

The Brass Band

How embarrasing

I played with the exposure a bit for this one (and with no tripod!)

The Troubador

Uh oh he's noticed us

 McPatisseries

Paris blogs

Just for the record, I am writing my blogs on paper but I will not be able to type any Paris blogs for a few days. Be patient.

Paris Continued

Continued

Well, we got to our hostel no problems.  We found some street parking and then went inside to check in.  When we got to the desk inside, we were told that we could not get our key for another hour –until 3:00. 

“But it is 3:00” we proclaimed.

“No” they said.  “The clocks went back an hour yesterday night.”

We walked back to the car embarrassed and then whiled away the hour in the neighbourhood.  After we got our key, we settled in.  We went out and bought metro passes that allow us to ride on the metro, the tram, the RER and the bus as much as we want. 

With a few hours we headed to a metro stop halfway along the Champs Elysées.   When we climbed out onto the street I was blown away by my surroundings.  I felt the same way I did when I first walked up into Piccadilly Circus.  As we walked along the Champs Elysées There were lots of cool stores including Citroen, Mercedes and Peugeot showrooms.  In the Citroen showroom they had 7 circular platforms on one central pillar, all with cars on them.  I don’t know how they got them on there.  I bought a miniature Citroen car as a souvenir.  (They are a French company).

The Champs Elysée was extremely busy.  It was hard to walk, as it was so crowded.  When we reached the Arc de Triomphe, we noticed that the 8-lane roundabout didn’t have any lanes marked on the road.  It was an everyman for himself scramble.  We decided to take the underground walkway.  

Because tomorrow is All Saints Day, there was a special memorial about to start when we arrived.  20 minutes later, when it still hadn’t started, we overheard that there had been an Al Qaida threat.  We left and returned to the metro and set off for the Eiffel Tower. 

As soon as we got off the metro at Bir-Hakeim near the tower we could see about 5 guys selling Eiffel tower key chains - 5 for 1€.  As we got closer we saw even more.  The price went down though - 6 for 1€.  We were distracted by the real Eiffel tower which was bigger than I expected.  There is a huge square between the pillars, jam packed with tourists as it was a holiday (All Saints).  After walking around aimlessly for a bit we decided to go back to the hostel and get some seep. (Did I mention that we have a view of the Eiffel Tower from our widow).   

 Citroen Showroom

 Arc De Triomphe

 Tour Eiffel

Champs Elysées

Paris!

October 31, 2010

I am writing this from the car on the route peripherique around Paris.  About 5 minutes ago we drove up a big hill and could see many Parisian landmarks such as the Eifel Tower and Sacré Coeur.  We are now passing over the Seine River.  Now we are driving through the Bois de Boulogne, well under it.  There are so many things I want to see.  I can’t wait. 

(To be continued...)

Happy Halloween!

Orléans

October 29, 2010

Today we decided we had had enough of châteaux and that we wanted to head to the city. We went to Orléans, a small city on the Loire. After we managed to get through the traffic maze, the first thing we did was go visit the art museum. The best part was the exibition about print-making.   They had a ton of prints from medieval times. One thing we noticed was that most of them were very gory. We also went to the Huge Cathedral and I bought some French books to read as homework. After that we walked along the river and had Döner Kebab with frites for supper.

Photos

I just put some photos on the "Loire Valley" post. Hope you like them.

Warm Baguette

Today I woke up a little earlier than normal. So when I bought the morning baguettes at the boulangerie, they were fresh out of the oven and still hot! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Loire Valley

Sunday Oct 24th

We have left Bretagne and are now in the Loire Valley.  Today we went and saw Chambord: a huge château.  When we first approached, I was awed by its sheer size.  It was commissioned by Francois I and took some 30 odd years to build.  It is comprised of 426 rooms, has 282 fireplaces and 77 staircases. (just for your information my Dad's information on this comes from the Lonely Planet Guide Book, mine comes form the Chambord Visitors Guide, so obviously my information is more relable) (maybe, maybe not. ed.). I now understand why the French had their revolution.  My favourite part of the castle was the double helix staircase, believed to be designed by Leonardo de Vinci. It is like a two spiral staircases one on top of the other.  The castle was built to serve as a giant hunting lodge for the king.  It was very hard to navigate the castle, but I think we managed to see most of it in the end.

Chambord

Monday Oct 25th

Today we went to Chartres.  The main attraction there is the huge Cathedral; we could see it before we entered the city.  The detail of the carvings all over the Cathedral was stunning and the stained glass windows were even better.  We climbed up the north tower and I was amazed at how much detail they put up high were few would see it.  The only disappointment was that the famous labyrinth was covered with chairs.  Although I will not complain; seeing the Cathedral didn’t cost us anything.

Chatres

Wednesday Oct 27th

We decided to go all out today and try and to see two châteaux in one day. (Did I mention that the Loire valley is famous for their châteaux?). We had planned to wake up early but in the end we woke up around 9 am instead. After breakfast we drove to Amboise to visit Clos Lucé, where Leonardo DaVinci spent his final years. The park and chateau were really cool because they had made life-size replicas of some of his inventions and you were allowed to try them out for yourself. Our second château of the day was Chenonceau. The château spans the river Cher with a series of beautiful arches. Also, this one was smaller and easier to navigate. I think I would rather live in this one than Chambord. They also had a labyrinth; and thankfully, this one was not covered in chairs.

Chenonceau

Clos Lucé

Inside Leonardo's tank

Update

Yesterday, the goverment voted on the pension reform. It was fairly close, 177 votes to 153 votes, but in the end they voted to adopt the new pension reform. Starting in 2018, the French will start collecting their pension at 62 rather than 60 and they start getting their full pension at 67 instead of 65. I don't think the unions are happy.  Nor are the students, who all fear there will be no jobs for them to go into if the old people don't retire.

St Suliac

We have been in our gîte for 2 weeks now and we haven’t gotten tired of it yet. Unfortunately it is now time for us to say goodbye. It is a very nice gîte. Since we are situated on top of a tall hill we have amazing views in all directions. To the east, we can see all the way to the Mont Saint Michel. To the north and the south we have amazing views of the Rance Estuary. Inside, both of the bedrooms have a nautical theme, with lighthouses on the walls and fish on the carpet (no, not real fish). We are also within easy driving distance of many amazing sites such as Saint-Malo, Dinan, Mont St Michel and many great walks and beaches (I have been swimming already, the water is freezing and salty but it’s worth it).  We have been eating walnuts from the amazing walnut tree and visiting with the owner’s donkey “Junon”. She loves to talk and she farts a lot too. The owner says that one of the people who stayed here played violin to her every morning. She loved that. When I wake up early in the morning, I go to buy baguette for breakfast. It is a beautiful walk. The town at the bottom of the hill is breathtaking. It was voted one of the "most beautiful villages in France". We did a few amazing walks along the coast. I thought it looked like the Mediterranean Sea, but my Dad thought it looked more like the coast of Cornwall. I also found about 7 small crabs on the beach. Back in the day, half of the men in town were fisherman who fished off the coast of Newfoundland. They would leave in the spring and not return until late fall or early winter. Today, when we went to the Boulangerie we bought warm "pain au chocolat" like a croissant with melted chocolate inside. It was delicious.

St Suliac

Dinan again

Today we returned to Dinan to see the Port and go to the market.  We approached from Lanvallée and walked over the huge viaduct with amazing views of the River and port. Then we continued up a switchback path, through the city walls and the gardens, past the Basilica and followed the people with bags full of veggies. At the market, I bought some Vietnamese food for lunch and got some caramel au beurre salée, a local specialty.  When we were done shopping, we started walking to the port when we were stopped by a protest march.  A real French experience.  After the demonstrators had passed, we walked down the hill to the port, went to the washroom (squat toilet, with no toilet paper, soap or paper towels).  Later we climbed back up the hill; then climbed back down; then climbed back up the other side.  Boy my legs are tired. 

An update on the strikes.

There are protests all over France and the troublemakers are taking advantage of it: breaking windows, burning cars etc.  Today, we could not find gas anywhere. We tried 5 gas stations.  In Marseille, they are blocking the port and the garbage collectors have been on strike for a week now so there are piles of garbage blocking the stores and the locals are worried about disease spreading.  Students have blocked many schools across France.  Luckily the frequency of trains are increasing

Viaduct 

Protest

Walking

For the past few days we have been doing long walks every day. We did three 10 km walks and then 2 days later we went to St Briac sur Mer and walked along the beach and cliffs looking at the oysters and finding tons of jellyfish. We also saw another Nazi bunker. (As there are many all along the coast of the English Chanel). We are now trying to avoid driving, as today we saw a station with no gas, and all of the other stations had hour long lineups. The region we are in is very beautiful, especially around the sea. I encourage everyone to try the crêpes recipe on the recipes page (link on the left). The cities poll is now over with Venice as the most popular with 14 votes, Barcelona with 5, and Paris and London with 4 each. My conclusion is that of the people who vote on my blog, most want to go to Venice rather than other places. Clearly more research is needed. I have a new poll on which I encourage you to vote on.

Odd House

Nazi Bunker

Here's my handle

Here's my spout

 tip me over...

Update

I have heard on the news that today is the first day of Opération Escargot (snail). The demonstrators have organised convoys of cars to slow traffic on motorways. There are also total blockages planned on some motorways today. When we go for a drive today with our full tank of petrol, we will make sure that we pack a couple of books and lots of food.

Pages

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Protest

Well, the French people are protesting again. All of the oil and gas refineries are being blocked; no trucks are allowed out, and now there are hour long lineups for gas.  Many petrol stations have run out completely. The railway workers are also on strike so the trains are coming less often and there are many demonstrations on the streets. All of this, because the goverment is planning to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. The Goverment says that there will not be a shortage of petrol but no one really believes them. Anyway, if we do run out of gas, we will take a train. Oh wait, they are on strike too.  My parents went out to get gas this morning and they had no problem.  There was gas at the first gas staion they went too and it was not at all busy. As back home, it is always less exciting than the news makes it out to be.

Cancale, Dinan, Dinard

Thursday 14th of October 2010

Today we went to Cancale, a beautiful seaside town. We walked along the waterfront and had Moules and frites for lunch; they were delicious.

Friday 15th of October 2010

We spent the day in Dinan today. Dinan is an amazing walled city straight from medieval times. The squares are full of crooked timbered houses, which look as if they will fall sideways at any moment. We also went to the museum in the castle, where you could see the original well and toilets.  After the museum, we went and saw the huge viaduct.

Medieval well

Medieval Toilet

Crooked houses

I feel very sorry for French school children. They are in school until 4:30! I also feel sorry for British kids because if they want to go on holiday during school their parents have to pay a 50 pound fine for everyday of school they miss.  Some parents still take holidays during term time because travel prices are low in Europe during the school term.

Saturday 16th of October 2010

Today we went to the Market in Dinard (Not Dinan). The shellfish they were selling were alive and trying to escape, the guy at the stall had to grab the crab and put it back in the basket every minute or two. We bought some delicious sausage, one duck, one bull, one spicy and one kangaroo (I don’t know where they found the kangaroo). We also got some goats cheese, galettes with sausage and one with egg and ham, some pastries, and a veggie that looks kind of like broccoli, kind of like cauliflower but also like nothing I’ve seen before. After the market, we went for a walk along the coast; it was stunning. 

Mont St Michel

We had a great day today; we woke up early in morning and drove to Mont St Michel. An abbey situated on an island in the Baie de Mont Saint Michel. The Baie is famous for its very odd tidal patterns on certain days of the year the water will sweep away any cars parked along the road to the Mont.

 When we drove up, the Mont was very beautiful in the morning sun with only a handful of hardy souls there in the biting morning cold. On the walk up the hill to the old abbey there is shop-lined road originally built for the thousands of pilgrims who come there. It is amazing how they manage to fit so many things on such a tiny island, every inch of land was being used for something. Most of the space was taken up by the enormous abbey but at the base of the island there were bits of building sticking out everywhere in a tiny maze of alleys running out from the one road. When we walked into the walled “town” we had the place to ourselves, none of the shops were open so we walked along the ramparts a bit before going to the abbey.

At the abbey, we had arrived too early to take a guided tour, which we had heard was worth it, so we walked around a bit on our own and tried to get back to the start to take a tour. Unfortunately, we went down the wrong staircase and when we tried to get back up, we were pushed back down by a bossy tour guide. In the end I had to talk with the lady at the desk and act cute so that she would let us back in. The tour was great; the lady told us all sorts of interesting things about the architecture and the history.  One of the most interesting things she told us was that they used to bring up supplies in a basket on a rope and the giant wheel they used to pull up the heavy bricks and food was turned by prisoners of the French revolution, like ran in the wheel like hamsters. On our way out we bought two boxes of the famous Mère Poulards Cookies, they are delicious.

On our drive home, we stopped and climbed Mont Dol.   It was not a long walk but there was a tower up top that you could climb to get great views, there was also a windmill and a café.